Sahay: Like Sinha

Ranchi, April 5: After the BJP’s Yashwant Sinha, it is the turn of the Congress’ Subodh Kant Sahay and both parties feel the model code of conduct is much ado about nothing.

“It is far too complex,” complained Sahay, the Congress candidate from Ranchi, who was booked today for disrupting traffic on Main Road.

“A mountain is being made of a molehill,” asserted BJP legislator C.P. Singh, who, along with external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha, was charged yesterday for the same violation after holding up traffic at the busy Piska More intersection in the heart of Ranchi.

Officials conceded that the violations would possibly attract just a censure or a warning from the Election Commission.

The “cases” lodged against the candidates, they claimed, were more in the nature of preventive measures rather than punitive steps. The cases, they hoped, would make political parties and their supporters behave more responsibly.

Sahay, whose supporters took out a procession today, throwing traffic out of gear, was cautious while reacting to the violations. “Yashwant Sinha is an educated man,” he said and asserted that violations, if any, must have been unintentional. Making a distinction between deliberate violations and unintentional ones, he felt that the Election Commission should forgive the latter. Intentional violations, he said, should be sternly dealt with.

The external affairs minister was not available for comment but the BJP camp appeared both irritated and bemused.

C.P. Singh, in fact, contradicted Ranchi deputy commissioner Pradeep Kumar and claimed that the party had secured permission to put up a stage “on a part of the road” on Sunday. Kumar had yesterday maintained that permission had been granted to the BJP to hold a meeting in an adjacent ground and not on the road.

Singh also contested the district administration’s censure for the BJP rally holding up traffic.

The administration and police, he claimed, had taken steps to divert the traffic and hence nobody was put to any inconvenience, he asserted.

Despite the brave face put up by the BJP, political parties are feeling the heat generated by the presence of Election Commission Observers and videographers.

District officials too are finding it difficult to ignore violations in view of the stark evidence recorded on film by the observers.

The common man is content with mouthing abuses and wonders how even half-educated people can so brazenly obstruct traffic. He also questioned the role of the district administration if it had actually granted permission to the BJP to hold its rally and the street play on the road.

The Ranchi district administration has so far lodged six cases for violation of the model code.

An FIR was lodged with the Kotwali police station against Sahay, who filed his nomination today.

The first case had been lodged against Youth Congress leaders who opened fire in the air, an exhibition of power, during a rally at Morahbadi.